Sweet Love
Disclaimer: RWBY is the intellectual property of Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. I claim no ownership.
Never before had a Ruby felt so nervous.
Pack of Beowolves? Good warm-up.
Giant Nevermore? Sounds like fun.
Torchwick and his goons? No problem.
Knocking on the door to Team JNPR's room to deliver a plate of cookies? Her knees were on the verge of buckling.
"I can feel my hair becoming a lighter shade of gold!"
Yang's heckling from Team RWBY's doorway wasn't helping much.
Ruby's head spun and she glared at Yang. "J-Just hold on a sec! I'm gonna do it!"
To prove her point, Ruby faced the door again and raised her fist to knock. For the third time in the past 15 minutes, though, she froze up. She stood there for a moment before her fist was lowered. Back to square one, then.
Behind her, Yang rolled her eyes. Her poor, innocent sister was experiencing something that every pubescent girl goes through once in their life.
Her first crush.
Jaune fell woefully short of Yang's Standards for Romantic Partnership™, but her and Ruby always had different tastes in everything. In a way, it made sense for her dorky baby sister to fall for the klutzy leader of Team JNPR. It was cute, in a preschool kind of way.
She doubted Jaune would be adverse to Ruby's interest, despite the two year age difference. The guy seemed pretty open-minded. Yang was confident he would be willing to give a relationship with her sister a shot. If he knew what was good for him, that is.
Ruby suddenly spoke up, "Okay. Here I go. For real this time!"
Raise fist. Freeze. Lower fist.
Yang facepalmed; this was losing its entertainment value. "Look, if you don't knock, then I will."
The shorter girl spun around and flailed one arm in a warding-off manner, "No! I got this! Just give me a moment!"
"You've already had several hundred moments! You've got five seconds!" Yang warned. "Five!"
"Five seconds?! I need more than- !"
"Four!"
"Yang, just wait- !"
"Three!" Yang started walking toward's JNPR's door. Ruby's one arm did nothing to halt her advance.
"I need to do this myse- !"
"Two!" She was at the door, despite Ruby's best attempts to push her back. She looked down at her little sister with a smirk as she raised one fist and prepared to knock.
"One!"
"PAUSE-PAUSE-PAUSE-PAUSE-PAUSE-PAU- !"
"Ze- !"
"Uh...what's going on out here?"
Ruby froze in her futile attempt to force Yang away from the door and slowly turned her head around to face JNPR's room. Standing in the doorway with confusion plastered all over his boyish face was the very reason she was there. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment and the cogs in her mind suddenly froze.
"Ah- hugh- guh- uh- "
Yang saved Ruby from further exertion,"Vomit Boy! Just the person my sister wanted to see. She's all yours."
The brawler finally stopped resisting Ruby's push and stepped away to head back to her room. The sudden lack of resistance made Ruby lose balance, and she fell towards the floor. Before she could land, though, an arm wrapped itself around her waist and lifted her back up to her feet.
"Woah! Careful, Ruby."
Ruby was near catatonic from the sudden (and charming) save. She managed to pull herself together enough, to spin around and shove the plate of cookies in her hands towards Jaune. She refused to meet his eyes, though; fearing that she would lose coherency again.
"I brought you these!" she nearly shouted.
Jaune looked down at the plate of cookies and gingerly accepted them. "...Thanks, Ruby...what are these for?"
"F-For eating," she said. Then she immediately started mentally berating herself. 'Of course he knows they're for eating, you dummy!'
The lanky boy didn't choose to call her out on it, though. "Um...alright..."
The two of them stood there in awkward silence. Jaune glancing between the cookies and Ruby, and Ruby keeping her eyes averted. Finally, figuring that was all Ruby came here to do, Jaune spoke up.
"Well, uh, thanks for the cookies, Ruby. I'm sure my team will love these." He then took a step back and prepared to close the door.
Ruby started and suddenly snapped her head up to look at him. "Wait!"
JNPR's swordsman froze and looked at Ruby in shock.
"I made those cookies for you," she finally confessed. The sudden burst of courage seemed to disappear, and she looked back down as she continued, "Wh-What I mean is, if you want to share those it's- uh, it's fine but I want you to know that I made them for you..."
A streak of pink appeared across Jaune's face. He struggled to find a way to respond, but he was less than successful. "Oh...um, thanks..."
Another awkward silence was approaching and Ruby didn't want to leave it at that. She needed to tell him now. There was a high likelihood she wouldn't be able to do this a second time. She swallowed thickly and decided to let it all out. With a fiery determination in her eyes, Ruby met Jaune's eyes once more.
"I-...I really like you, Jaune!"
Jaune jerked back in surprise and his cheeks burned brightly. Ruby didn't let up, though.
"I think you're a really great guy and we should go out! If-," her breath hitched, "If you don't want to go out with me, I get it but I really think- "
"Ruby..."
"-that you should give this a shot-"
"Ruby."
"-because this could be something really great and my dad always said to never pass up something-"
"Ruby!"
Jaune finally managed to break into Ruby's rant. The girl's mouth shut with a clack but she did not avert her eyes. Now that her feelings were laid bare, a measure of her usual confidence seemed to return and she steadfastly stared at him with eyes that brimmed with guarded hope and veiled fear. Jaune took a moment to gather himself after the bombshell laid on him.
Finally, he responded with a sheepish smile, "I...I think we should go out, too. How does tomorrow sound?"
For a moment, Ruby just stared at him with an uncomprehending look on her face. When his words finally registered, a blush grew across her cheeks and she nodded dumbly. Jaune's smile widened in response.
"Great! I'll see you tomorrow for our, uh, date!"
Ruby nodded dumbly again. Jaune began to ease his door closed again when he remembered another piece of advice his dad imparted on him. He stepped forward and gently grabbed Ruby's hand, snapping her out of her shocked state. The knight brought her hand up to his face and laid a kiss on the back of it. Steam blew from Ruby's ears and her face acquired the hue of a ripe tomato.
As per usual, though, the confidence Jaune had in his actions was a facade. One that he lost the moment his lips left her hand. He jerked upright and let go of her hand - which stayed frozen in place - , stuttering out his words of farewell.
"Yeah, uh, well, g-good night, Ruby!"
He he took a step back and unceremoniously shut the door, leaving a blushing and catatonic Ruby standing in the hallway. Behind her, the rest of her team was peering through their cracked door.
"I'm not even surprised that the two of them can act so childish about this," whispered Weiss
"Aww~ Don't be jealous that Ruby is getting a boyfriend before you do, Princess," came Yang's cheeky reply.
"Shouldn't you be jealous that your baby sister is getting a boyfriend before you," Weiss shot back.
While the two of them fired jabs at each other, Blake walked out into the hallway and grabbed the frozen form of Ruby by her hood and dragged her back towards their room. The smaller girl would need her rest for tomorrow.
A/N: I feel like I should reiterate this before I become known as the Exvnir of fanfiction, my OTP is Arkos. I sail the S.S. Arkos with pride and distinction. I just enjoy making Jaune the Ladies Man he wishes he could be.
This Red Moon one-shot was a request from Shiranai Atsui, who contacted me months prior. At the time, I wasn't ready for requests. At present time, I'm still not ready for requests. Shiranai has just been really patient and I didn't want to leave them hanging. I hope you enjoyed this.